Gov. Tom Corbett right to fight NCAA on Penn State sanctions

There are, no doubt, political reasons for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett filing suit against the NCAA regarding sanctions leveled against Penn State.

Those reasons aside, and despite his previous stance on the matter, Corbett has done the right thing.

When the NCAA announced its sanctions against Penn State, we said immediately that the punishment was misdirected. The punishment was a tactical nuclear bomb, wholly without discrimination, without precedent and, perhaps, something that no doubt will be argued in court, without the underpinning regulatory ability of the NCAA to levy in the first place.

The individual who undoubtedly deserved punishment in the case, Jerry Sandusky, received that punishment. He will never again see sunshine beyond prison walls. Others at the institution lost their jobs; some face criminal charges. Joe Paterno has been gone for close to a year now. His legacy will not be what it could have been, but he is well beyond any further punishment.

There is almost no punishment that we would consider unfair for Sandusky. What he did was an act of depraved evil. He horribly altered the lives of each of his victims, and nothing we can say, nothing we can do, nothing anyone can do, can change that.

But we do not believe that punishment should be exacted inappropriately. We do not believe Sandusky should be allowed to create additional victims. And the sanctions, levied because of his actions, essentially do that.

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They lay responsibility for Sandusky's actions at the foot of every Penn State football player; every student; the university; and the community beyond.

That is too much power to grant to Sandusky. Let him rot.

For his actions, and for what the Freeh report claimed was an institutional failing that allowed Sandusky to act, Penn State was hit with a $60 million fine, a four-year bowl ban, limits on football scholarships and the official vacating of 112 Paterno-era gridiron wins.

None of these punishments is specific to the acts perpetrated by Sandusky. We do not believe the substance of the Freeh report supported the conclusions that it levied, that there was evidence of institutional failure that allowed Sandusky to act as he did.

The university was punished; the football team was punished. Paterno was punished. Sandusky was untouched by all of it. He was dealt with through the criminal-court system, as it should be.

Corbett initially suggested that Penn State accept the sanctions as part of a "corrective process," but he later said that he began planning the lawsuit shortly after the announcement of the sanctions.

It is unfortunate that the specifics of this case are going to be pulled into court again; that the victims of Sandusky's crimes will again see headlines related to their victimization.

There was no way that Penn State could have brought this suit. Such an action would not have been appropriate. Yet, it was plain - to us, among others - that the university was being unjustly punished. Someone had to speak for it.

Well, what better person to speak for a land-grant college, a state institution, than the governor who leads that state? Corbett took up a fight Penn State could not lead; a battle that needs to be fought for the many innocent victims of the NCAA's rightfully horrified reaction to Sandusky's sexual abuse.

From a political view, Corbett is seen as vulnerable nearly two years out from his re-election. Penn State graduates are a powerful voting bloc. Stepping to the plate for them won't necessarily do any harm from a political standpoint. We can't ignore the political element to all this; as we said, it just also happens that political motivations may have brought about a socially responsible idea in this case.

The NCAA was right to be horrified; we all were. The NCAA was wrong in its expression of that horror. The final determination as to the truth of our contention that the sanctions were misdirected and did little more than harm many who had nothing to do with Sandusky's actions is for the courts to decide. Penn State deserves that hearing.